How They Were Caught: The Unabomber

when a brilliant mind is used for doing something bad rather than good the consequences that follow could be extremely damaging or even fatal furthermore when that very same mind has undergone a psychological experiment where some participants came out altered on many levels it could be assumed that it might have been a contributing factor for how theodore ted kaczynski would later become known as the unabomber [Music] ted kaczynski was known to be wise beyond his ears he was said to have been very quiet and didn't socialize much and through the eyes of his younger brother david ted was extremely awkward and withdrawn recalling times where ted would run up to their attic to hide when house guests would arrive their mother once told david never abandoned ted because that's what he fears the most she believed his odd behavior stemmed from being hospitalized as a baby for several days feeling as though that had caused ted to have deep rooted abandonment issues also described as hyperintelligent he was academically more advanced than his peers and before he would even turn 16 years old ted was accepted to harvard university on a scholarship whether he was ready for it or not he soon found himself as a young freshman at a top ivy league school while there ted happened upon a psychological experiment under the hands of dr henry murray a harvard professor who had previously trained spies for the cia during world war ii the participants of the murray experiment had gotten very little information as to what the experiment entailed apart from what was worded in the announcement for volunteers which stated would you be willing to contribute to the solution of certain psychological problems parts of an ongoing program of research in the development of personality by serving as a subject in a series of experiments or taking a number of tests average about two hours a week through the academic year at the current college rate per hour without any warning about the severity that the test subject would endure ted decided to volunteer at the beginning of the experiment ted and 21 other participants were asked to write an essay on their philosophy of life once the essay was turned in murray took each subject into a brightly lit room and sat them in front of a one-way mirror with electrodes attached to their heads to monitor their responses to what would come next thinking they'd be debating their points of view the subjects were instead met with demeaning high stress and intense interrogation it was reported that the intent was to catch them by surprise to deceive them and to brutalize them to preserve their anonymity the 22 undergraduate participants were only referred to by code names kozinski was referred to as his code name lawful while being taped they were systematically destroyed with the information they had provided in their essay by a law student who had been prepped to inflict the abuse their ideas and values were ridiculed and they were torn down to their wits end session after session they were challenged humiliated and forced to watch their character be degraded through playbacks of previously taped sessions all in an effort to push them to their breaking point murray himself referred to the subject's questioning as vehement sweeping and personally abusive attacks the experiment was aimed at exploring how far a person could withstand interrogation but proved to be mind-altering and damaging to a number of its human test subjects some believe that this was the cause of ted's hostility towards technology he'd even later state with certainty that it was in 1962 that he'd become against it the same year the experiment ended and the year kaczynski graduated from harvard [Music] after harvard ted attended the university of michigan where he earned a doctoral degree in mathematics after receiving his phd he went on to teach at the university of california of berkeley for a short period of time and eventually moved to great falls montana in 1971. [Music] it seemed he had wanted to get away from the world becoming a recluse living in a cabin he built on a piece of land that he and his brother david owned the cabin only measured 10 by 12 feet and had no telephone heat electricity or running water and his closest neighbor was 10 miles away after ted would not allow david to build a home for himself on their shared property in great falls david ended up building a cabin in a secluded part of western texas where he lived for eight years he would correspond by mail with ted frequently during this time when later interviewed david reported that he saw his time away from society as more of a spiritual journey and a time for self-discovery whereas ted viewed his time in isolation as all about getting away from the collective mess of the modern world david explains you could call the difference between us one between the left brain and the right brain ted was hyper-analytical it's curious that he rejected technology because his way of thinking was very scientific very binary [Music] alone as he'd wished ted now spent most of his time borrowing books from the local library and began writing a manuscript which later became known as the unabomber manifesto some time went by and in 1977 he began writing rage-filled letters to his parents claiming that they never loved him a year later in 1978 ted relocated to the city where he took a job at his brother's factory in chicago the move wouldn't last long as ted began harassing a woman at work going so far as to write lewd and offensive rhymes about her on the walls of the factory david was forced to fire ted while his work at the factory came to an end ted was just getting started terrorizing the country in may of 1978 during ted's time in chicago the first of many of his packages was sent the prototype was found at the university of illinois at chicago and then brought to northwestern university located just outside of chicago in evanston illinois the address on the package indicated it could be returned to one of the professors there the package detonated at northwestern university injuring a security yard ted kaczynski's revolution against the industrial system was underway one year later in may of 1979 kaczynski would send another bomb to northwestern this time injuring a graduate student [Music] months down the road another package containing a bomb exploded in a cargo hold on american airlines flight causing injury to 12 on board with three bomb incidents and no suspect federal investigators created the task force dedicated specifically to the airline case where it was attributed to the work of the unabomber by media outlets on june 10th 1980 another bomb was detonated at the home of the president of united airlines percy wood whose home was near chicago with a second airline related bombing the federal task force now included members of atf and the united states postal inspection service and was called unibomb una bom which was an acronym that stood for university and airline bombing as those were the primary targets eventually the task force was so large that it had 150 full-time investigators analysts and others working to try to find the unabomber his work was refined as parcel after parcel went out each was made with scrap materials and with great precision making them extremely difficult for investigators to trace over the years to come more explosives were sent to people who had ties to universities in the aero tech industry some to their homes others to their workplace which included 1981 the university of utah 1982 vanderbilt university and the university of california at berkeley in 1985 a second explosive was sent to the university of california at berkeley along with the boeing company in auburn washington and the university of michigan at ann arbor on december 11 1985 the unabomber would send his first fatal package to a computer store in sacramento killing the owner hugh scrutten following that computer store was another in salt lake city on february 20th 1987 another package was sent and received by store owner gary wright who was injured in the attack wright's case would finally give authorities some kind of lead an eyewitness was able to give a vague description of the person who might have delivered the package providing investigators with a sketch of the possible perpetrator a man in a hooded sweatshirt with sunglasses though it was not much the sketch would be widely distributed to the public in hopes of getting more information for years investigators had searched in vain for anything they could find in the recovered bomb components and tried to mine the victims lives for any detail that might help reveal the unabomber's identity the unabomber's attacks went silent for a while and he wouldn't re-emerge for another several years at this point david was in a relationship with a woman he was planning to marry and in 1989 ted ceased all communication with david because he had a problem with his relationship david had refused to call off his wedding which was reportedly the reason ted had cut all ties with his brother the bombings continued in 1993 were targets based at the university of california at san francisco and yale university were attacked the unabomber's next fatal attack took place on december 10 1994 after a bomb was sent to the home of advertising executive thomas mosser in north cadwell new jersey and on april 24 1995 he'd send his final fatal bomb to the president of the california forestry association gilbert p murray who was killed in the sacramento office still unable to calculate his methods investigators would soon learn that the unabomber's victims were chosen completely randomly from library research within the same year the case broke open when authorities received a 35 000 word manifesto from the unabomber which explained his motives and his take on the problems in society after heavily debating the moral and safety implications of publishing the letter for the public fbi director louis freya and attorney general janet reno approved the manifesto appearing in the washington post and the new york times in hopes that someone could identify the author [Music] following the manifesto's publication thousands of readers suggested new suspects including david who feared that the manifesto had a similar writing style to his estranged brother's previous work david's now wife linda was the one who noticed the similarities in the writing style and informed him when david came to terms with the possibility that the man reigning terror on the nation might be his older brother ted he was left conflicted by this new reality one of his biggest dilemmas about coming forward was how their mother would feel about him doing so linda helped david work through the emotional turmoil of deciding to reach out to the authorities which he eventually did he provided federal investigators with letters and documents that ted had previously written for linguistics experts to analyze after comparing and scrutinizing the samples supplied by david with the unabomber's manifesto experts were overwhelmingly sure that ted kaczynski could be the culprit furthermore they learned that ted had worked at the university of california at berkeley where two of the bombs had been placed years after his departure from his position there and during the earlier parts of the unabomber spree combined with certain facts comparing the nature of the bombings with ted kaczynski's life and beliefs along with analyzing those documents was enough for the courts to issue with the authorities a search warrant [Music] on april 3 1996 with the tips provided by david kaczynski investigators were ultimately led to ted's montana cabin where they found huge amounts of evidence that could be used to convict him the unabomber was finally caught after arresting ted investigators continued to comb through his property the evidence they collected from inside his cabin included a large supply of bomb components one live bomb that was ready for mailing 40 000 pages of handwritten journals that included bomb making experiments descriptions of the unabomber's crimes and descriptions of the targets in one of his pieces of writing he said of his killings my motive for doing what i am going to do is simply personal revenge they also found drafts of his manifesto ted kaczynski was brought into court in california and new jersey as these were the locations of his three fatal attacks being charged on 13 counts of bombing and murder he pleaded guilty in hopes of avoiding the death penalty but was rejected by justice department officials before the trial ted was suspected of trying to commit suicide in prison and had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to judge his competence to conduct his own defense at the trial a government psychiatrist and the attorneys on both sides came to agree that kaczynski was competent to stand trial and that he had the right to represent himself in court his lawyers wanted to claim that he had the delusions of a schizophrenic but kaczynski refused to allow that description to be attributed to him [Applause] on january 22 1997 ted pleaded guilty to being the unabomber and was not allowed to represent himself without his attorneys throughout his trial he refused to show any sign of remorse or penance on may 4th 1997 ted kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or release and is housed in an isolated cell in a supermax prison in colorado to this day which has been well over 20 years after numerous letters and cards david has yet to hear back from ted seemingly because he felt so betrayed reportedly when ted found out that david was the one who identified him for federal authorities he said that's impossible david loves me he'd never do that david cleared the air with his mother and finally told her that he turned his brother in to which she replied i know that you loved ted and wouldn't have done that if you hadn't had to leaving david feeling reassured about his decision even still every so often david continues to write to his brother to let him know that he's always welcome to reach out david has written a book about his experience and his relationship with ted and has become an advocate for anti-death penalty activism and just as his mother once told him not to david has yet to abandon his big brother ted you

Channel: BuzzFeed Unsolved Network

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Keywords: PL-HowTheyWereCaught, SffZ, Ted Kaczynski, anarchy, buzzfeed, buzzfeed unsolved network, buzzfeedunsolvednetwork, crime, crime investigation, fbi, how ted kaczynski was caught, how the unabomber was caught, how they were caught, investigate, investigation, manhunt: unabomber, serial killer, the unabomber, theories, true crime, unabomber, unabomber manifesto

Id: 8an1Q9QlYrs

Length: 15min 45sec (945 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020